Schedule change

Due to a scheduling conflict, guest speaker Juhani Nuorvala will be unable to give his lecture on club music as planned on April 16th. We'll replace it with the following week's topic instead, post-minimalism and totalism, and Juhani will speak on April 23rd in the final lecture session before the exam. Listening recaps from the previous lectures will be posted before the Easter holiday. Enjoy your break!

Listening recap

Here's a list of the main listening we've done in past classes, as well as the material I assigned as preparation. I recommend going over all the assigned listening. The recommended listening won't be on the final, but I highly recommend doing it as a way of increasing your familiarity with the composer's style, as you will be required to play guess-the-composer to a certain degree.

Lecture 1: Historical precedents and oddities, non-Western influences

No required listening, but here's some of what we listened to in class:

Wagner: Prelude to "Das Rheingold"
Debussy: "Pagodes" from "Estampes"
Chávez: Sinfonia India
Britten: Young Apollo (opening), "The Pagodas" from "Prince of the Pagodas"
Satie: "Vexations", "Trois Gymnopédies", "Musique d'ameublement" ("Furniture Music")
McPhee: "Balinese Ceremonial Music", "Tabuh-Tabuhan"

Under non-Western influences, we covered gamelan and gagaku, of which several audio examples are available in the library.

In jazz, we listened to John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things".

Under the topic of the pop/classical divide:

Sufjan Stevens: "Out of Egypt"
Galen Brown: "Pulse Point"
Nico Muhly: "A Hudson Cycle"



Lecture 2: La Monte Young

Required: "The Well-Tuned Piano"

Recommended: "On remembering a Naiad"



Lecture 3: Terry Riley

Required: "In C"

Recommended: "A Rainbow In Curved Air", "The Harp of New Albion"



Lecture 4: Steve Reich

Required, "Come Out", "Piano Phase", "Drumming" (Part 1), "Music for 18 Musicians" (complete)

Recommended: "Drumming" (Part II-IV), "Tehillim", "Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ", "Violin Phase"


Lecture 5: Philip Glass

Required: "Einstein on the Beach" ("Bed" & "Spaceship" scenes), "Music in Twelve Parts" (Parts I-II), "Contrary Motion", "Akhnaten" (Prelude)

Recommended: "Two Pages", "Music in Similar Motion", "Music in Fifths", "Music with Changing Parts"



Also check out this recent article on Charlemagne Palestine, whom we discussed a bit last week. He'll come up again. I have recordings of many of the pieces mentioned here, which I can make available.

Welcome!

Welcome students of this semester's minimalism course. This blog will serve as your reference point and gateway throughout the semester. Weekly listening lists will be posted here, as well as course updates, schedules and anything else I think you'd find interesting. The links sections at the right side of the page will grow as the class progresses, so please check in regularly for updates. There are already a few places to start. I recommend the Crash Course link under Audio & Video.

Use the comments section for general questions about the class and assignments, I'll answer as soon as I can.

-Matt